Like winter, Season 6 of Game of Thrones is coming. After an extended ramp up of trailers, late-night clips, and spoiler-y cast interviews, the show is less than a week away. So what’s to be afraid of? Well, this season marks the point in which the HBO series will surpass the books they are adapted from, George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire . The series has diverged from the books before—often to the ire of online fans—but now the show is sailing into the stormy waters of the Narrow Sea without even a coastline to guide it.
This puts the show in a similar situation to its characters, who—if they even remain alive—have all long since left any safe harbor. The final promo reminds us of their uncertain fates: Daenerys captured by hostile Dothraki horde, Tyrion and Varys stranded in a foreign city on the brink of war, and a host of other characters nervously clutching to swords, knifes, and bows. Over these images, Tyrion Lannister says, “Wherever you are, wherever you go, someone wants to murder you. Are you afraid?”
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We don’t know who Tyrion is talking to, but as Game of Thrones fans know, the message applies to every character. If fans are afraid of anything, it’s that their favorite character could have their throat slit, guts poisoned, or eyeballs gouged out at any moment. The show revels in killing off major characters, and this season’s marketing has played on fan anxiety. The posters and earlier trailers showed a series of dead faces in the vaults of House of Black and White where the Faceless Men worship the Many-Faced God: Death. We were shown the faces of long-dead characters—Oberyn “Red Viper” Martell, Robb “King in the North” Stark—alongside still living characters like Sansa Stark and Cersei Lannister. The message was clear: Anyone can die this season, and many will.
And this season, even book readers won’t know who will die much less gleefully film their friends and family freaking out . Are you afraid? Well, it’s a TV show, so probably not. But fans might be munching their lamprey pie just a bit nervously come Sunday.
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